Along the Road
by Lor-tan
Summary: A spirit is only as good as the company he keeps, and before he met the Guardians Jack had a few other acquaintances.


There are a few other spirits that never get mentioned, and never get their memories back.

xXx

Jackie Lantern is the spirit of Halloween. She's born without anyone's input, and certainly without the Man on Moon's approval. No, she's born from the sick delight of children on Hallow's Eve, when young ones think it's fun to be frightened. She gets black markings drawn across her face and striped stockings under her black fur cloak, and eyes that glow green in the dark.

She meets Jack first, when he causes a storm on her holiday. She's furious, naturally; this is her day to shine, and she hasn't missed it in two thousand years. But then she sees who's causing it, and softens a bit. She can still remember being a new spirit, lost and confused over why she had appeared, the body of a twenty year old with no memory of those twenty years her body spoke of. She'd been frightened, confused, angry, and just couldn't keep a handle of her powers. She'd set crops on fire and turned food to sweets without noticing for years until she could finally control herself.

So she doesn't yell at the frail looking boy in a cloak who is snowing on her parade. Instead, she says hello. He stares back at her with wide panicked eyes, and shakes his head.

"No. No, I must be having a nightmare. Or a dream. You can't see me, and this," he gestures to the snowstorm whirling around them. "is not happening."

She can't help it. She's the spirit of Hallows Eve, and fear causes her twisted amusement. So she snickers. "Oh, calm down, snow sprite. You've just got to calm down and it will work itself under control. Eventually." It's her turn to gesture to the snow. "At least I think that's how it works for seasonal spirits. You'll have to ask April Showers."

He just keeps staring at her, and her smile fades. Oh. Is she the first he's seen? Has no one explained this to him? How new must he be, she wonders."Listen, snow sprite. Calm down. Take deep breaths. Imagine what makes you happy." For a moment laughing children and shrill shrieks echo in her mind, and she sees masks and candles and blood, both fake and not. "Think of, I don't know, snowflakes and candy canes. Make it up. Just hunker down and let me talk to you."

It takes a moment, but then the storm flickers a bit around them and eventually, with a bit more nonsensical sentences and calming gestures, it stops. Almost immediately the temperatures rises, and she can practically feel the children peeking out of doors and windows in hope of trick or treating opportunities still being there.

"There you go, snow sprite. See? You just gotta breath. Now, come with me. I've got kids to trick and scare and keep safe, I can't just hang around here forever." Jackie turns to zip away, but whistles lowly when the boy raises himself unsteadily on the air. What is Wind doing, hanging around with this kid? "Impressive." She crows, and she thinks she maybe sees a flicker of a grin on his face. So he's the fun loving type, is he? "But let's see if you can keep up with the best of us." She adds, and then she's off like a shot, crawling and jumping and disappearing into dark corners only to pop out somewhere else. She easily beats him, but he's laughing when he catches up to her where she's waiting, just outside a small town, where the citizens are just begging to be frightened.

xXx

April Showers meets him because her friend Jackie tells her to. Apparently he's new to the whole spirit thing, and has powers too destructive to just be left to figure it out on his own. She can't imagine it at first. She was born powerful by spirit measurements, and yet no one bothered to teach her, the red headed, blue shrouded spirit of scattered storms anything about her new world. She woke with no memories and still has none, but she's figured herself out on her own. Why can't this Jack Frost do the same?

Well, she thinks as she gazes at her falling drops of water turned to hail, and the frozen spring flowers that decorate her favorite clearing. Jackie may be right. April teaches him the bear essentials and then chases him away with a yelled warning to stay away from her.

She's a spirit of Spring, she sees no miracles presented in Winter's chills.

xXx

The Three Sisters meet him, and they think he's an absolute blast. He only thinks the same about one of them.

Fold shows herself to him first, intentionally, and laughs when he asks her to cover her bare body. "Well," She purrs to him, flicking back blond hair over her shoulder to expose herself even more. "Why would I ever do that?" She asks with a wide grin and a flutter of white eyelashes over equally white eyes.

"It's inappropriate." He tells her, and tries to shield his eyes, but she just grabs his hands away from his face and cackles.

"Once you've lived as long as me, patient 130859, you'll discover that modesty is simply a lie constructed by human society anyways. Remember! Reality's a lie, the universe is a hologram, buy gold!" She screams at him, and then disappears with another cackle, not a single sign of her ever being there.

Wrinkle's introduction is just a shaking. They stumble upon one another by accident, unintentionally combining storms and killing probably dozens in the process by the destruction they cause. But Wrinkle just whistles appreciatively and turns to grin at the young winter spirit she's found, a promise of trouble in her grey eyes and sin in her shark toothed smile.

"Not bad, not bad at all, kid. Care to meet again?" She asks, waving an arm at their still thundering storm and causing more lightening in the process. She smooths her revealing blue dress next, and Jack is thankful she's even a bit more modest then her oldest sister, even if she is the Goddess of Storms and Prostitutes.

Jack numbly shakes his head no, staring down at the devastation he's made, even unintentionally. The shouts of April Showers are ringing in his ears.

"Nah? Oh well. 'S just as well, we'll probably get less believers this way, anyhow."

Jack's head snaps up, but she's gone before he can ask her a single question.

And Crease is the kindest. She purposely hunts him down just to give him a plate of brownies.

"To welcome you to our world!" She tells him cheerfully, and he wonders how this antlered angel could ever be related to that shark toothed woman and that... actual angel. Who would have known that actual angels were so chaotic and rotten, he thought. "I know that the world as a spirit is kind of confusing, but you'll get used to it! And besides, my sisters said you were fun to hang out with, so I wanted to give it a try! Any interest in visiting some arctic foxes with me? They're mostly under my domain, but I haven't checked on them recently."

He nods yes, and she giggles and starts running in the other direction, and it makes him afraid for a moment that this is just a trick or a practical joke on him, before she turns and waves wildly as him.

"Come on! I'll get there first if you don't come on."

Crease can run as fast as a cheetah, but Wind moves faster, and this time, he wins the race against his fellow spirit.

And later, she tells him that she thinks her sisters are criminally insane, but none of them can remember why. It's just the way it's always been. Fold is Innocence Lost, and she lacks any kind of stability or reason but what coincides with her own domains as a spirit. And Wrinkle, as a Storm, cannot process the value of human life, too caught up in being a force of nature to care that she causes suffering even among her own.

And Crease is Second Chances. So she loves and forgives them anyways.

xXx


End file.
